Improvement in the manufacture of soap



UNITED STATES PATENT EErcE.

GEO. W. N. YOST, OF YELLOW SPRINGS, OHIO, ASSIGNORTO G. W. N. YOS'I 82; 00., OF SAME PLACE.

IMPROVEMENT IN THE MANUFACTURE OF SOAP.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 27,605, dated March 20, 1860.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, G. W. N.Y0s1, of Yellow Springs, in the county of Greene and State of Ohio, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Soap; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full and exact description thereof.

It is well known that soap used for washing clothes is far more efficient when applied hot than when employed, in the usual manner, in the form of bars. On this account many prefer soft soap, which can readily be heated by the addition of boiling water before the soap is applied to the clothing; but on account of the many inconveniences of transporting soft soap I find hard or bar soap in general use for common household purposes.

The object of my invention is to prepare a powerful concentrated hard soap convenient for transportation and readily convertible into soft soap and into suds by the addition of hot water.

My invention consists in a new article of 1nanufacture--namely, hard soap in a state of minute subdivision instead of bars or cakes.

Any of the usual well-known ingredients may be employed in the hard soap manufactured according to my invention; but for ordinary purposes I prefer to use the following ingredients in the proportions mentioned, namely: best white bar-soap, sixty pounds; sal-soda, twenty pounds; refined borax, two and onehalf pounds; solution of chloride of soda, (of the shops,) one quart; spirits of hartshorn, three and one-half pounds; alcohol, three and one-half pounds; water, as below specified. These ingredients are compounded as follows: In a kettle of suitable size, to which heat is applied, dissolve the twenty pounds of salsoda and the two and one-half pounds of ,borax in a small quantity of water; then add the sixty pounds of white soap, shaved up finely, adding sufficient water to reduce the mass, when heated and thoroughly stirred, to a tough ropy consistence, like soft putty. The contents of the kettle, being thus reduced to a soft uniform mass, are allowed partially to cool, when all the other ingredients are added and thoroughly stirred into the cooling mass. After the soap compound thus prepared becomes stifi', and before it is allowed to dry, it is introduced into a receiver or hollow cylinder open at one end and provided at-the other with a head having numerous small perforations, through which the soap is forced by a piston fitting the receiver or hollow cylinder. This operation reduces the mass of soap into minute vermicular forms, when it should be carefully and evenly spread upon canvas frames, where it will soon dry, ready for packin g.

In collecting the dry soap from the canvas frames and packing the same, the vermiform soap is broken into pieces of various length,

and some portions may be reduced to coarse powder; but this change does not injure the quality of the soap for the purposes intended. The fresh soap, as it is forced from the perforated cylinder in vermiform, may be cut into short pieces by a set of wire knives reciprocating across the end of the perforated cylinder; or any other known means (as those used in manufacture of vermicelli) may be em ployed to subdividing the soap either before or after drying.

This soap may be put up in packages or in boxes, or otherwise, to suit the trade. In this form of minute subdivision the soap is very convenient for transportation and for use. By the addition of hot water it may be converted into soft soap of any desired consistence, and soap-suds may be made with it almost instantaneously.

- For boiling clothes this soap is especially convenient, as it is simply to be added to the water in the boiler, without any further labor, either in dissolving or rubbing upon the clothes, being necessary.

As this soapis highly concentrated and powerful, it is very efficient in washing, yet the ingredients are so proportioned as not to injure the finest fabrics. As it can be readily applied hot, it saves much labor in washing. It is very cheap, and is in all respects a desideraturn.

I am aware that soap has been reduced to shavings for convenience in dissolving for various purposes; but shavings are liable to adhere together the moment water is added to them,thus formingagainasolid mass which dissolves with difticulty; but my vermiform soap, above described, cannot be aggregated into a mass with hot water, but forms a soft soap The above-described new article of manufaeture-nameiy, hard soap prepared in a state of minute subdivision instead of bars or cakes, substantially as set forth, for the purposes described.

G. W. N. YOST.

Witnesses DANIEL BREED, EDM. F. BROWN. 

